


Cloverfield

by tyelperin



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, cloverfield as in the 2008 movie, cloverfield au, everyone survives, no need to know the movie to read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6637423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyelperin/pseuds/tyelperin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Heeeey, Em. What up? Hope you liked the party," Josh finger guns with the hand he's got over Chris' shoulder. "We're gonna miss you, don't forget about us."</p><p>Chris does a little wave at the camera. He opens his mouth to speak.</p><p>The ground trembles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cloverfield

**Author's Note:**

> There are no real warnings to make regarding this work, monsters aside. A bit of violence, but nothing graphic. It's kind of experimental-ish, with fast lil scenes. It was fun to write.
> 
> Special thanks to [parapines](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Parapines/pseuds/Parapines), who betaed this and deals with my obliviousness.

Mike is on camera duty and he hates it with his entire being. Shouldn't Josh be the one recording everything? Like ok, the party was Josh's idea but can't he deal with the party and the camera? Mike doesn't even know how to operate the thing. He does care about Em leaving but it's not as if she's gonna thank him or anything.

"Mike," Jess calls out to him while she sorts the plastic cups on the table. "What are you doing? Go get some testimonials or whatever."

He huffs, turns around, and spots Chris. Alone. Cool. Mike walks to him, and judging by the look Chris is giving him he knows what he's about to do.

"No," Mike pushes the camera into his hands, but Chris refuses to take it. "Mike, stop."

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"But Chris, you'd be so much better than me at this," Chris snorts. Mike's not about to give up though. "I'm serious, dude. Come on."

Convincing Chris to do it ends up being surprisingly easy. Sure, he does put up some resistance at first but it doesn't take much for him to take the camera off Mike's hands. The party is about to start, he's free to do whatever, the night is young.

It's gonna be great.

xXx

"Sooo Hannah, Beth, wanna say something now that our dearest Em is leaving?" The twins look at each other as the lens focuses on their faces, and they smile. "Loud enough that they'll hear  you across the pond!"

"Hey Em!!!" Hannah says, shy but bright. "Have a fun stay in London! We love you."

Beth snorts. "Yeah, right. We'll miss your sweet, gentle voice," The camera shakes in Chris' hands as he laughs, and he has to hold his arm to keep it steady. "But like. I don't know. Be you, steal the throne!"

Chris walks backwards as they whoop.

xXx

Jess smooches the camera and Mike rubs his sleeve over the lens to wipe off the lipstick. She screams at future Em that she's gonna miss her so so much and that she better come back with that sweet bod still intact. Mike yells with her that she's gotta go kicking all them assholes. When they're done, Jess winks and they dance away.

xXx

The room is full to burst, everyone is dancing and the music is kind of digging a hole in Chris' skull yet he screams with everybody else when Emily crosses the threshold. She yells at them for being mushy, sappy, cheesy geezers. Then she cries.

xXx

"We'll miss having you here to keep everyone in line," Sam says, and she's half crying and half laughing. "Honestly. They're going to go berserk without you, Em."

Ashley bops by her side and Sam catches her sleeve, tells her to say something nice to Emily over the music, and Ashley blinks at the lens and kind of smiles. It's a bit of a grimace, but it's only because cameras unnerve her. Sam pokes her shoulder, Ashley takes a breath.

"I...don't really know what to say...I...just I'll miss you, Em. We all will? Take care of yourself. I know you will but. Yeah."

It's so awkward that it's a bit painful, but Chris can roll with that.

xXx

He finds Matt sitting alone in the kitchen looking at his own hands. He starts when Chris enters the room, shoots the camera an apologetic smile, and shrugs.

"Hey dude. Collecting some testimonials for Em here," Matt keeps staring at him, and Chris is starting to feel a bit nervous.

Matt sighs. "Ok. That's the camera, right?"

"How many do you see?" Chris teases and Matt shoves him with a small smile in his lips.

"Ok. Em, I know you love us as much as we love you. I'm moping now, at your party, and I know you're gonna feel unhappy about that. But it's ok, I'll go back out there soon. What I mean to say is...Em...you'll always have us, yeah? So kick some ass over there."

He fist bumps the camera and Chris doesn't cry at all.

xXx

"What the fuck are you doing with my camera, cochise?"

"Testimonials," Josh frowns.

"Mike was supposed to do that."

"Yeah. He delegated."

"Asshole."

Chris snorts and Josh grabs the camera with a hand and Chris' arm with the other. He keeps the camera pointing their way as he slings an arm over Chris' shoulders, and smiles that sleazy smile of his.

"Heeeey, Em. What up? Hope you liked the party," He finger guns with the hand he's got over Chris' shoulder. "We're gonna miss you, don't forget about us."

Chris does a little wave at the camera. He opens his mouth to speak.

The ground trembles.

xXx

Nobody knows what it is. Chris managed to catch some of it on camera, but the image isn't coming together. He thinks that it's probably because it's too monstrous to even imagine, let alone believe it's walking around them and can be filmed.

Chris never stops recording.

"This has to be seen," He tells Josh, as they hide in a shop waiting for the thing to pass the street. "It has to be known."

Josh holds his hand so hard that it hurts.

xXx

Matt's mother calls. He tells her that they're alive, doesn't dare lie to her and say that they're fine. Alive.

They're alive.

Emily runs towards Matt, suddenly, catching them all off guard. She's the first to see it, the...other terrible thing. It's smaller, but fast, and it's jumping on Matt as Emily grabs a stone with both her hands and launches at it at full force.

The thing shrieks, but Emily keeps hitting it. She pounds it with the stone, again and again, until it stops moving. Matt's phone is on the floor, and they don't know if it's still on. They don't know much. They don't know if there are more of those around. This time, Chris is the one to grab Josh's hand.

xXx

"I love you," Chris says, and Josh stares at him with his eyes open wide. They're crouching behind a car. All of them. He doesn't care. "I love you, dude. Kind of a fucked up time to say it but still true."

Josh bites his lip and clenches his fingers around Chris' arm, shaking his head. "You just stole Em's thunder."

The thing growls in the distance, and it's terrifying. Loud, menacing. Too close. Eerie silence follows the sound, falling on them and leaving them breathless. Its footsteps echo around the city, but they're moving farther away and they can breathe again.

Chris hears Josh's voice, small and so unlike him but so real, whispering _I love you too you ass_ in his ear.

xXx

Mike's leg gives out and Matt and Sam have to help him walk. They're dirty, covered in dust, gravel and blood, but it doesn't seem to register. The military truck has passed that area and they have to follow it, and be fast. If they lose it, they don't think they'll be able to leave the city at all.

If they didn't cross the bridge in the first place was only because Ashley told them that it sounded like the worst option. If there really was something around, big enough to tear off the Statue of Liberty's head, there was a possibility that it would tear down the Brooklyn Bridge as easily.

At first, they were reluctant to listen. Jess screamed at her, and they did start walking towards it.

Once they heard the groan of the bridge giving away only a few streets from where they were, Hannah and Beth hugged her so tight that they almost got trampled down by the flood of people running from the bridge.

There are many bridges in Manhattan, but after that they can't trust any of them. The only thing they can do is hope to be lucky enough to find one of those trucks.

xXx

There are helicopters leaving the city and they head towards the place where they appear to be flying off. Mike still can't walk alone and even though they're managing to get there it's still an agonizing journey.

The streets that were crowded when it all started are empty now and that fills them with unease. Even though they've managed to stay together and survive, their hope is running thin. No matter how close the helicopters might be.

Chris has tried to talk, sometimes, but he's lost the energy to come up with a topic. He's too distressed, and he can feel that Josh is too. It's not only in the way he has stopped cracking jokes, trying to lighten up the mood as much as he can, it's in how he seems to be smaller than ever, huddling close to Chris.

In his defense, though, Chris is doing exactly the same. He thinks most of them are. Getting in their own little safe clusters, clinging to whoever gives them more calm. 

Em and Jess, though, look as determined as when they left their building after the first earthquake.

Beth thinks that that's the only reason they keep pushing their limits to reach the fucking heliport

xXx

Its foot is just around the corner. Josh is staring up, up, up and at its head with his mouth open in wonder. It's not admiration, Chris thinks, but it's the look of someone that's as terrified as amazed. He kind of gets it, through the fog of fear he can feel it too. This thing is unique, massive, it defies human comprehension, it's anatomy is twisted and indescribable. He hopes he can remember how it looks and, at the same time, he wishes to be able to forget.

The pavement is cracking all the way to where they're hiding, behind a van, and the thing steps over them and down the street. It seems to be on the move now, and there are no smaller creatures falling off of it but it's wet and as it passes drops of water fall over them like rain.

It's past midnight, the sky was dark to begin with but under the creature there are no stars, no fire, no sound, nothing. A void. A breach in time and space. It passes them, and with it goes the chilling silence, the droplets of water splattering their skin, the darkness. Its next step feels like the end of the world.

They run.

xXx

According to Josh's wristwatch, it's been around three hours since it all started.

The camera is still rolling while Hannah, Beth and Sam board a helicopter. Chris keeps it in his right hand, and holds Josh with his left arm. Josh is hugging his waist and hiding his face in his neck, taking deep breaths. Chris would like to do the same, but he can't. He has to keep the camera on. He doesn't even know why anymore.

Matt, Mike and Em are next. They try to get Josh on a helicopter with Ashley and Jess but he refuses to move and a stranger boards with them. Chris feels like time is going too slow while they get another helicopter there. His skin is itchy, his body is restless yet so tired that he feels close to fainting.

Josh lifts his face from his neck and kisses him. His lips are chapped, and he tastes like dust, but Chris cries all the same. Josh cries too. They don't linger, can't afford it when they're so close to safety, yet in so much danger.

They get on the helicopter with a man in a ruined suit that can't stop twitching. They take off and Chris sits as close to Josh as humanly possible, but keeps shooting the thing through the window. It can be seen from the air, its full body moving around the city as if it belongs to it. It does, he guesses, in a way.

Josh sighs and grabs Chris' arm, makes him point the camera their way.

"My name is Joshua Washington. It's two in the morning on the 23d of May, year is 2008. If whatever shit happens to us, and this is found, this is the real story of  what went down in Manhattan today," he chokes up, his hand is trembling and Chris has stopped trying to keep his own arm steady.

"I'm Chris. This is all real, ok? That thing is real. Take care."

Chris drops the camera to his lap and finally, after what feels like a lifetime, turns it off. He knows that what he said doesn't sound good, but it's the best that he can offer.

He gets and arm around Josh's shoulders and Josh holds onto his thigh.

The blades of the helicopter drown the sounds of Manhattan crumbling down.


End file.
